The Revolution on Granite, 1990

October 1990, Kyiv.

The video shows the Student Revolution on Granite — a protest and hunger strike by students in Kyiv on October Revolution Square (now Independence Square). Barricades, students rallying, people behind the fence support the protesters, sing songs, shout slogans, speech by Yaroslav Kendzor, Member of Parliament of Ukraine, speech by schoolboy Maksym Butkevych, singer Oleg Pavlyshyn performs the song ‘A my khloptsi, bandervtsi’ (We are Bandera's boys), an excerpt from the song ‘Khmary hriznishe zisyadyshly nad holovamy’ (Threatening clouds gathered above our heads) performed by singer Andriy Khavunka.

Reference: The main demands of the protesters were: the resignation of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, Vitaly Masol; the prevention of the signing of a new union treaty with the USSR; the re-election of the Verkhovna Rada on a multi-party basis; the nationalisation of the property of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Komsomol; and the service of Ukrainian conscripts within Ukraine.
Maksym Butkevych is a Ukrainian human rights activist, journalist, and co-founder of NGOs who has been working on migrant issues and human rights violations for over 20 years. After the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, he went to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was captured by the Russians, was sentenced to 13 years in prison, but was released in October 2024 in exchange.